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Palm will not abandon Palm

CEO denies rumors that Palm OS is nearing its end of life. The Windows Treo is …

In what could only be described as an awkward letter, Palm CEO Ed Colligan sought to reassure Palm OS developers about the future of the platform.

Our Palm OS customer loyalty is extremely high, and we intend to continue to earn that loyalty with great Palm OS-based products. We have sold more than 30 million Palm OS-based products over the years, and it is not our intent to walk away from such a strong and loyal user base.

Why does the CEO of Palm hardware need to make such an explicit statement concerning Palm software? Part of the reason stems from a now retracted article, "Access foresees an end of life for Palm OS," published in Computer Business Review. The apparently misinterpreted quote stated that, "a logical end-of-life is expected for the Palm Operating system and that the company anticipates being able to offer an integrated OS solution "sitting on top of a Linux kernel." Access flatly denies this.

Access is planning to follow the current business model and management strategy as established by PalmSource, which includes comprehensive support for existing versions of Palm OS for customers, developers, and partners.

Interestingly, Colligan has also said that had it been up to him, he would "probably not" have sold off Palm Source. "If we owned the platform, could we do more integration right up the stack with that? Probably yes." However, continuing that discrete monologue Colligan also asks and answers the question, "Is it also possible to make great products when you don't own the platform? I'd say yes to that too." Apparently so, as the recent announcement of a Windows Treo appears to indicate Palm is trying to expand its share of the PDA market.

Palm, whose share of the PDA market was as high as 70 percent a mere five years ago, now finds itself with a dwindling fifth of the market. Competition from Windows PDAs and Smartphones, as well as an increasing number of cell phones with PDA functionality, has resulted in a steady decline. But does anybody see a trend here? How about few more compelling products (the Treo 650 and LifeDrive look like a nice start), the failed introduction of Palm OS 6, and the sale of PalmSource? And now Palm is selling a product that directly competes with its base, how can that not be a sign of trouble? Well, the CEO of Palm believes.

I believe that developing differentiated, software-rich products on a range of industry-standard platforms puts us in a unique position with customers and carriers and helps us expand the market opportunity for us, the developer community and everyone involved in the smartphone category.